The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio – Biological Scholar's Program

Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine

Special topic: neuropharmacology. Description: forthcoming.

Londraville Lab for Comparative and Integrative Leptinology, University of Akron

In conjunction with the NIDDK we sought to find the developmental contributions of leptin with regard to osteogenesis and bone mineralization. Using calcein staining and epifluorescent microscopy we could mark mineralized bone at specific developmental stages and determine the impact of a leptin morpholino microinjection knockout, knockdown, or recovered individual, ultimately showing that bone structures do not calcify in the absence of leptin. My contribution was included in the 2014 publication“Comparative Endocrinology of Leptin: Assessing Function in a Phylogenetic Context” by Londraville et al. in The Journal of General and Comparative Endocrinology, and presented at the 2011 symposium for undergraduate research at the University of Akron.

World Bank Special Projects: Proyecto CURMI, Amazonia, Peru

Led by an international consortium of herpetologists, agronomists, and economists, Proyecto CURMI sought a sustainable use of pristine habitat that brought in an income for the local population without the consumption of natural resources, fostered conservation and preservation of delicate biomes, and generated a sense of community pride. By teaching local people how to create artificial habitat for the beautiful native species of poison frogs, clutch sizes and populations of the frogs were elevated beyond the natural point. Excess frogs that would otherwise die off due to over competition could then be gathered for collectors, raising money for the farmers to continue their work.

National Institutes of Health, The Ohio State University

Ohio State's insectary provided a source of wild prey items, pseudomyrmex ants, for the poison frog Dendrobates leucomelas, my research subject. The project sought to answer the question of how exactly poison frogs concoct their special toxins; are they directly obtained from poisonous ants and secreted as they are, or are they somehow synthesized, weaponized, if you will. For my part, I introduced captive born frogs to the wild-type prey items to see if any toxin would be secreted. In captivity these frogs are fed innocuous fruit flies, making it impossible to create any sort of poison. Would they, then, be able to create toxin without ever having proven competent to do so? This research went on to be finished by Dr. John W. Daly of the NIH and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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